


Operation Baby Bean

by LucindaAM



Series: Beauty and her Beast [6]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (Still not quite there yet though), Angst with a Happy Ending, Bruce and Reader sitting in a tree, F/M, Light Swearing, Mostly Fluff, No Smut, Then comes a baby in a baby carriage, first comes love, k-i-s-s-i-n-g, then comes marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucindaAM/pseuds/LucindaAM
Summary: You and Bruce have an important conversation about future possiblities.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Reader
Series: Beauty and her Beast [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925902
Comments: 11
Kudos: 52





	Operation Baby Bean

You sat on a table in Bruce’s lab, staring off into the distance as you swung your legs back and forth. You weren’t paying attention, or you would have noticed the way Bruce’s eyes kept glancing over you, a small smile forming on his face before he’d go back to work. 

The two of you were used to spending time together in silence. Neither of you were much for conversation unless it had a purpose. You especially struggled with talking, preferring to keep your thoughts to yourself unless otherwise invited to share. 

Bruce didn’t mind. He liked spending time with you no matter how the two of you spent it. 

He wouldn’t have liked it as much this time if he knew what had been running through your head. 

You bit your lip and glanced at Bruce out of the corner of your eye. For the past week, you’d been unable to think about anything other than the footage Tony had shown you of Hulk handling baby-you. You’d never really been one to consider yourself “adult enough” to have children, but now . . . 

You’d hadn’t been able to think about anything else. 

You’d been trying to think of a way to bring the topic up to Bruce gently, but you kept chickening out. You had a feeling you knew what his response was going to be and you didn’t want to risk a Hulk episode over a serious conversation about your future. 

But you were both in the labs . . . and they’d been reinforced . . . 

You took a deep breath and recognized that the timing wasn’t ever going to get any better than this. You had thought long and hard about it and you wanted to be a mother. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a decision you could just make by yourself. So, one way or another, you were going to have to talk to Bruce. 

Your hands wrapped around the edge of the table and you hung on for dear life, using the immoveable slab as an anchoring point as you dove right into the dreaded conversation. 

“I have to tell you something!” You blurted out loudly. 

Bruce startled, nearly dropping the test tube in his hands. He glanced at you with wide eyes after he’d fumbled the test tube safely back onto the desk. 

“Okay?” He asked. “What’s going on?” 

You bit your lip, unsure where to go now that you’d gotten this far. “It’s just . . . uh. Well. Listen, maybe you should sit down.” 

Bruce sunk uneasily down into his seat. His hands clenched in front of him. “Are you okay? Is something wrong? I didn’t know you’d even gone to see a doctor.” 

You watched as the vein in his head started popping out and you jumped from your table and rushed to his side. You smoothed his hands out. “No. No, baby. Everything’s fine. I’m fine.” You cooed, running your hands over his face before you leaned your forehead against his. “I’m sorry. This wasn’t a good way to bring it up . . . maybe we should just wait until . . .” 

Bruce reached up and grabbed your hands, keeping them pressed against his face. “No. No. If ou have something you want to say, I want to hear it. Always.” He said gently. 

You smiled at him carefully and moved to sit on his lap. His hands fell away from yours and one hand moved to rub your back soothingly while the other moved to rub your thigh. Your hands fell away from his face and you stared at them as you wrung them in your lap. 

For a minute, the two of you were silent. Content now that he knew you weren’t dying; Bruce was willing to wait for you to order your thoughts. Whatever it was that was on your mind, it had been for almost a week which meant that it must be important to you. He’d wait as long as it took. 

After a few minutes you sighed deeply and glanced at him. “I . . . I want to talk about what happened a week ago.” You started. 

Bruce furrowed his brow and tried to think. “You mean when Loki turned you into a baby?” He asked. He still couldn’t believe that had actually happened. The science behind it was nearly inconceivable and he knew because he’d been trying to figure it out ever since. 

You nodded slowly. “Yes. But specifically, I want to talk about what happened WHILE I was a baby.” 

Bruce glanced at you with an appraising look as he tried to figure out where you were going with this. 

“We got you to medical and Loki turned you back after some . . . persuading from the big guy.” 

You shook your head quickly and pushed out of his arms so you could start pacing around the room. You murmured to yourself as you tried to figure out the best way to approach the topic but you’d been trying to figure that out for the past week and you were SICK of thinking about it. Maybe that’s why you did what you did next. 

You whirled around the Bruce. “I want to have kids!” You yelled. Your eyes immediately went wide and you slammed your hands over your mouth. 

Bruce looked like you’d just slapped him. 

He sat frozen in his chair, staring at you with a pale face and wide eyes. 

“Bruce?” You asked, taking a step closer and reaching a hand out when he didn’t respond. “Crap, did I just break you?” 

Bruce shook his head and swallowed hard. “You . . . you want to have children. With me.” He said slowly, as though trying to understand the logic behind it. 

You nodded slowly and took one of his hands in yours. “Yeah, dummy. Who else would I have them with?” You tried to laugh. 

Bruce jumped from his chair and recoiled. “Anyone! Anyone else!” 

You flinched, but not in fear as Bruce started pacing angrily around the lab. He was shaking his head adamantly. “You can’t seriously tell me that you want ME to father your kids. Who knows what kind of MONSTER they’d be!” 

You snapped. You marched up to him and took his face in your hands. “You are not a monster!” You yelled, chest heaving. “You think you are because you’ve been programmed to think you are! Hulk is not a monster! He's . . . he’s one of the best things that ever happened to me!” 

You broke off and slumped to the ground as tears started streaming down your face. You leaned against Bruce’s desk wearily. 

Bruce hovered above you, not sure what to do. You’d never once raised your voice to him in the years since you’d met and he knew what had triggered it this time. Bruce and Hulk didn’t always see eye to eye. More often than not, Bruce was left with no memory of what he did when Hulk was in control. There were only a handful of exceptions to that, all of them involving you. 

He still remembered the feel of bones snapping as Hulk had destroyed the men who had been chasing you through the woods the night you met. There was no doubt in Bruce’s mind what those real monsters had been planning on doing to you if they’d caught you. But Hulk had saved you. 

He’d saved you every time after that too. 

Bruce slid to the ground beside you and pulled you into his arms. You leaned against his chest as you struggled to get yourself back under control. Bruce rubbed your back and kissed the top of your head as he waited. 

Eventually, you found your voice again. 

“You don’t even know that it would be passed down, you know. And there’s been a lot of advances in genetics research since your accident. You could figure something out, Bruce. I know you could.” 

Bruce squeezed his eyes shut and held you just a little tighter to his chest as he thought about what you were offering. 

Before Hulk, Bruce had always wanted a family of his own. His own childhood hadn’t been anything worth mentioning, and he’d always wanted a chance to do better than his own father had. The thought of having a family had disappeared after the accident. So had the thought of everything else in his life. 

But then you’d come into it. 

You’d taught Bruce how to live again. You’d taught him that it wasn’t just enough to survive. He had to thrive. 

An image popped into his head then. It was an image of two children. A little girl and a little boy. Both had your features and his eyes. In that moment, Bruce lived an entire lifetime with them in his own head. He saw the two of you taking them on picnics in the park, or teaching them the constellations in the night sky. He saw them running around the lab, driving Tony ‘crazy’ while secretly Tony loved the chance to teach them new tricks. 

He saw the laughs and the magic and the dreams and for once, they pushed the fears and the ‘what ifs’ out of his head. 

You glanced down at you, still curled in his arms and he let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. 

“Alright.” He said simply. 

You pulled away to stare at him, a tender sort of hope already blooming on your face. “Really?” You asked. 

Bruce nodded and tried to bury the fears of the unknown down deep. He could do this. He wouldn’t let Hulk interfere with this. “Really.” He breathed. 

You flung yourself at him in a way that made Bruce think you were ready to start right then. He indulged you for a brief second before he pulled away and leaned his head against yours. “I . . . I want to do some test’s first.” He said, stumbling over his words, hesitant to break the hope on your face. 

You nodded quickly, willing to agree to whatever it took to get him fully on board with the idea. “Yes. Of course, whatever you need.” You reached over and squeezed his hands. “It’ll be okay Bruce. You’ll see.” 

You leaned in for another kiss before you stood and brushed your clothes off and gestured with a thumb towards the door. “I’ll just . . . I think you need a minute. I’ll just go somewhere . . . else.” You turned and started walking towards the door before you paused and shot him a look over your shoulder. “Come find me when you’re done?” You asked. 

Bruce nodded, numbers and experiments already forming in his mind’s eye. 

You smiled at him one last time before you skipped out of the lab. 

Bruce turned back to the half-finished experiment sitting on his desk and he ran shaking hands through his hair. 

He could do it. 

He wouldn’t let fear rule his life. 

He was going to be a dad. 

He smiled. 

He reached for a notebook and started scribbling thoughts down. 

Hours later when Tony strutted into the labs, he found Bruce slumped, asleep, over his desk. Tony shook his head in amusement and went over to Bruce, pulling the notebook out from under him and slipping a pillow under the scientist's head instead. 

As Tony laid the notebook down beside Bruce, he couldn’t help but do a double take at the small doodle of two people and a child Bruce had drawn in the corner of the page. A quick glance over the equations Bruce had already started charting and a huge grin took over Tony’s face. 

“Get a copy of these, J.” Tony ordered, setting the notebook down so JARVIS could scan it. 

“Yessir.” JARVIS said. 

Tony smiled down at the snoring Bruce. “You deserve it, buddy.” He whispered. 

Then, he turned and sauntered back to his own half of the lab, already starting to review Bruce’s work. 

“Alright, J. Operation Baby Bean is officially a go.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thepracticalheartmom, I THINK (unless I get a sudden wave of inspiration) your last suggestion will be in the next part.
> 
> For everyone else; If you're a fan of Stucky/Reader, check out mine and Thepracticalheartmom's collab - "Southern Belle".
> 
> We've been cackling like madwomen while writing it and I can personally promise you lot's of fluff (and angst *cough cough* so go check it out!


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